Once
by Endless Secrets
Summary: She speaks of her home kingdom some days... Drabble.


**Here, keacdragon, I posted it! XD**

**I wrote this a long time ago, before I had a Fanfiction and didn't have any way to post my stuff. :) It deals with Lavinia, obviously; I was thinking about how eventually she'll be married off to another rich king, and that she really has no choice in her life. And thus, this was born.**

**My new chapter has at last been started, and if luck favors me it'll be up soon. Please feel free to yell, scream, whatever –it all helps me focus on posting it. ^_^ Thanks, and please enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I'll say it until I take control of it –I do not own Jane and the Dragon. Sheesh… XD**

_**-x-x-x-x-**_

Sometimes they call her silly, sometimes mad (behind her back, of course). She is by far the strangest Queen they have ever had, a woman with the child in her still peeping out from behind the bright dark eyes, eager and extravagant and imaginative. They are slightly apprehensive of her, and quietly resent her because she is not one of them; she is a native of another home, and a strange foreigner, too.

But she certainly tells good stories.

She speaks of her home kingdom some days, far away across the sea that she only crossed once, to get here. A large kingdom, filled with sweeping hills and mysterious runes and legendary heroes that she used to play dress-up and follow-the-leader with. It remains shrouded in the mists, she says softly, emphasizing the mystery of the place with a furtive smile and a glitter in her eyes; it is a place of magic.

When her words are greeted by unconvinced looks and eye-rolls, she just shakes her head condescendingly and her long dark locks, loose with small flowers braided into the tresses flow like the sea over her shoulders. Her mouth curves into a wide smile, and she asks for just a few more moments in which to speak. And of course the wish is granted, for though they deny it, her listeners are secretly intrigued by her tale.

The Queen clasps her hands together in anticipation, and then breathes out through pale, rose-pink lips that she has seen a Dragon.

Again with the eye-rolls.

Yes, they do indeed exist! she claims, they do indeed. They are large and green and can sing like a nightingale when pushed. They have large appetites and small wings, and they fly with the gas they attain from eating plants. Some, oddly enough, do not want meat and prefer vegetation to any other edible.

They are extremely loyal, too, she adds softly, almost as though she is speaking to herself. They will choose their companion and that companion will be by their side always, their friend to the bitter end.

The eye-rolls have ceased; the listeners have fallen silent, entangled in the snares of her memories as each one drips off of her lips like rare diamonds.

She smiles to herself, her eyes clouded with reminiscences. And she continues, in a voice soft as a whisper of wind: Sometimes that friend is the first female Knight. Sometimes that friend is a redheaded girl, with bright, intelligent green eyes. A hotheaded individual who never really listened to authority, just pretended to. A girl who one day climbed atop that beloved emerald Dragon and flew off into the bluest of skies to search for the remainder of his kind.

The Queen falls silent, her fingers knotted tightly in the folds of her silken dress. Her head is lowered to hide any betraying expression, the small circlet of silver glittering slightly as the sun's rays brush gently along its rim. She has stopped speaking, and the listeners have realized this. They slowly rise to their feet, wincing as they notice that their legs have cramped because they've been on the edges of their heels, interested in spite of themselves. In confused silence, they pile out the door, two bumping into the gilded doorframe because they keep turning around to look at their Queen.

But she remains still, head bowed and face hidden, even after they have filed noisily out the door and can be heard pattering along the stone walkway outside her chambers.

She does not move for a long time.

_**-x-x-x-x-**_

**I **_**seriously **_**need to branch out. Maybe I'll write an **_**Up**_** story –whaddya think?**

**Quick note: I was reading a book (I forget the title XD) in which no quotation marks were used at all. I thought I'd give it a try with this, so when you notice the lack of quotes it's because I chose not to add 'em.**

**Anywho, _please_ read and review! Thanks all! :D**


End file.
